Xenornis

After my family hopped the bus back to El Valle early last week, I spent a few long days chasing some target birds from the Burica Peninsula through Fortuna to lowland Bocas del Toro. The first major highlight was a male Yellow-billed Cotinga found at the end of the road at Chorcha Abajo on 24-10; the bird was present but distant even for a scope view when I arrived, but I waited almost two hours for it to come in closely enough for a clear i.d. Thank you to Kilo Campos for his reports for this area, which gave me the faith to keep waiting! On the 25th I visited the Burica Peninsula, but bad weather early in the day, combined with confusion as my Charco Azul access, served to limit my success. Nonetheless, the road leading uphill just before the Petroterminales access yielded a male Common Yellowthroat and a female-plumaged Ruby-throated Hummingbird. The water level on the Quebrada Mellicita was very high, so I could walk in for 100 yards or so (even with good boots), but still a...

During my last trip to Cana that started from December 28th to January 4th with Andrew Valleley and Dale Dyer, we had an excellent adventure where most of the Cana specialties were seen. Frank Rheind saw a Striped Woodhaunter on January 2th, and we saw it the next day at El Paletón trail. Next day we got an Orange-crowned Oriole close to the lodge. According to the book Where to Find Birds in Panama , both birds have not been recorded for Cana. On January 4th we returned from Cana to do birding at the Metropolitan Nature Park to chase the Pheasant Cuckoo, Yellow-green Tyrannule t and Slate-colored Seedeater . All of them were seen. Next day we headed to the west doing some grassland birding around Herrera province where we found a Striped Owl at Las Macanas Marsh. The following day produced the Coiba Spinetail and Brown-backed Dove [at Coiba Island, of course]. On January 7th we had a White-throated shrike Tanager in a big mixed flock, and both wood wrens were seen forag...

El pasado domingo 16 de agosto, Hildegar Mendoza, Osvaldo Quintero y mi persona nos encontramos con Rafael Luck y Euclides Campos (luego que observaran Azuero Parakeet y Great Green Macaw en una intrépida gira a Cobachón el día anterior) en el Centro de Visitantes de el Parque Nacional GDDOTH (El Copé). Ya Rafael y Euclides habían caminado el sendero de La Rica (Snowcap trail), encontrando varios individuos de Bare-necked Umbrellabirds y un Lattice-tailed Trogon. Siguiendo sus instrucciones logramos observar TRES Umbrellabirds con crestas pequeñas vocalizando... el más grande con piel desnuda roja en el cuello parcialmente oculta (como se aprecia en la foto por Quintero). Había otro individuo (más pequeño y curioso) con algunas plumas blancas en el pecho (probablemente un grupo familiar en su época post-reproductiva?). También logramos observar una bandada mixta compuesta por varias especies de tanagers (Tawny-capped, Speckled, Black-and-yellow), por lo menos tres Yellow-throated ...

On the first official day of the PAS fieldtrip to Santa Fe, Satuday, July 15th, 2000, we were joined by the rest of the group: Amalia Herrera, Cora Herrera and José Tejada. Early in the morning we saw a female Bare-necked Umbrellabird on one of the small trails that enter the forest from the road to the left after the Alto de Piedra school. It perched on a stick right next to the trail allowing for close inspection by the group. It was black overall, with a short bushy crest that gave its head a flat-topped appearance. It did not utter a sound, or do much apart from changing perches twice before disappearing into the foliage. Following the same trail we had a mixed flock with both Three-striped and Golden-crowned Warblers, and further in Rosabel saw a female Black-and-white Becard on another flock. On Satuday, July 15th, 2000, the PAS group on Santa Fe walked down the main road towards the continental divide in search of a Harpy Eagle [sic] nest. Apparently the road was cut in the dry ...

Over the weekend, Bill Adsett, Rafael Cortez and Jan Cubilla visited Fortuna and nearby Chiriquí Grande. They had some very interesting sightings, such as Lattice-tailed Trogon , Strong-billed Woodcreeper , Rufous-rumped Antwren , at least 9 or 10 Rufous-breasted Antthrush on the Continental Divide Trail, of which 3 seen well; Black-and-white Becard , a female Bare-necked Umbrellabird observed for 15 minutes on the trail behind IRHE station; Black-thighed Grosbeak , and Sooty-faced Finch . They even saw a puma crossing the road at night about 100 yds from the vivero.